


Things Said When You Were Scared

by Fionavar



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Body Horror (mentioned), F/M, Orlan Watcher, Priest of Skaen Watcher
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 15:40:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11763042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fionavar/pseuds/Fionavar
Summary: Prompt from maybethings on tumblr: Things you said when you were scared, pairing of your choice.I was playing Pillars of Eternity at the time, and somehow that translated into writing something for my Watcher Oublie and Hiravias. I didn’t even know they were sort of a thing until this turned up. Now I have an entire timeline.





	Things Said When You Were Scared

“Tomorrow, my master chokes on his own whip.” Oublie whispered the words into the darkness – Skaen’s familiar words, a promise that she had treasured over long years of slavery in Old Vailia. Words black with hatred, constant as her heartbeat, that had become a battlecry on that glorious night when she had led the rites, and brave Viarno had become the Effigy. They had slain all who stood between them and freedom. 

But here she was, a slave once more, chained by a master she did not understand. How to scheme against this Watcher’s madness? Against whom should she direct her anger now? The bîaŵac, or the man who, perhaps, had triggered it with the Engwithan machine? Mad Maerwald, rotting in the ruins? None of it made sense. It was all too big, too impersonal, for her to resent… and without hate to shield and guide her, she was afraid.

“Tomorrow, my master chokes on his own whip.”

An animal howl of pain echoed from the darkness. Oublie blinked hard, trying to regain enough night sight to find the threat, and her long, furry ears twitched. The silence was absolute, the nightbirds as startled and frightened as she, for a long moment – then there came a low, dragging sound, gradually approaching. With shaking hands, Oublie pulled her stilettos free of their sheaths.

Darkness resolved itself into the form of a stelgaer, stalking toward the campfire, dragging the carcass of a deer. As it came closer to the light, Oublie saw the warm shade of its fur and resheathed her blades. With a final tug, the stelgaer let the deer fall, and in a flurry of light, the predator’s form disappeared, leaving the orlan druid standing over his kill.

“Hiravias,” Oublie greeted him.

“Watcher,” he replied cheerfully, and squatted down to begin butchering the carcass. “Give me a hand?” She had barely laid her knife to the animal before he looked at her – one eye and Wael’s symbol on his eye patch. “Look… no hard feelings, all right? But you need to get yourself together. There’s lots of things out there attracted to the scent of fear, and you’re stinking up the place for a mile or more. Tonight, there’s nothing meaner or bigger than me around, but sooner or later…”

Her pulse quickened and her ears buzzed with anger. How dare he call her a coward? How dare he _know?_ “You-“

“Now, that’s all right,” he interrupted. “Anger’s fine. Nothing that wants to keep its balls comes near a female in wrath.” He grinned at her. “In fact, I’ll just back off and let you get on with this, shall I?”

“Don’t,” she said, but the word was weak, only a request. For a moment, anger had run hot through her veins, warming her into life – but it was still difficult to sustain in the face of the unknown. Besides, she liked Hiravias.

“You got it,” he said, and they worked together, turning the deer into meat, as the nightbirds settled down and began to sing again. It was… companionable.

“So, Skaenite, huh?” Hiravias asked. “That’s a hard god to follow.”

“Not when you are born into slavery,” she said. “Not when you know you’re worth less than the rotten food you’re given. He’s very easy to follow then.” But now…

“You’re starting to leak fear again,” the druid said quietly. “Stay angry. Talk about… oh, your first master or something. Should do the trick – besides, I’m curious.”

Somewhat to her surprise, she found she wanted to talk. Her story spilled out of her as they skinned and carved - far more than he had asked for, far more than she’d ever thought she’d tell. The cruelties and wrongs done to her and her kin, the ways they had fought and the revenges taken, each scar on her pelt, each time she had been sold. Old angers lived again, old bonds and furtive friendships, and even Viarno, whom she had loved and sacrificed.

The nightbirds fell silent as she finished; the smell of dawn was on the air, and the others would surely begin to stir soon. “You know,” said Hiravias, scratching his shredded ear, “I figured that, sooner or later, you’d say, ‘Hey, Hiravias, how about a friendly tumble?’ and I’d say, ‘I noticed a – well, whatever’s handy for wherever we were at the time – back there if you like privacy.’ But, I’ve got to say, seeing as you mentioned you once cut off a cock, I’m not, ah, feeling quite as up for it…”

It should have enraged her. She had spoken of horrors, and he had taken it as an invitation to flirtation; he had made a punchline of the most sacred and desperate rite of her faith.

Nevertheless, for the first time in years, Oublie laughed.


End file.
